Bad faith applications in Romania

01-10-2011

Dragosh Marginean

One consequence of the changes to Romania’s trademark law is an increasing number of bad faith applications.

These are the applications identical or very similar to famous international or local trademarks covering identical or different classes (and sometimes covering all classes).

The new provisions

The new trademark law did away with ex officio examinations for relative grounds of refusal, transferring the duty of trademark watching from the patent and trademark office to trademark owners. This measure was strongly debated before its entry into force because some believed that domestic trademark owners were not prepared to pay the high costs associated with active trademark watching and enforcement.


Bad faith, applications

WIPR